Collegium Cantorum is a concert choir, organized in 1986,
specializing in "large forms for small choirs" and
drawing most of its repertory from the great
masterpieces of medieval and Renaissance Europe.
The Latin name, loosely translated above,
was chosen to suggest a concentration on "early music";
to us, this means music composed before 1601.

Our performances, held in Washington-area
churches with acoustics appropriate to medieval and
Renaissance "cathedral music", are open to the public
without charge, though voluntary, tax-deductible donations
are solicited. Generally, each program is presented twice:
once on a Saturday evening, and again the next (i.e.,
Sunday) afternoon at a different location.

The literature we perform is quite challenging,
exciting, and satisfying, and is often well "off the
beaten path" even for early-music groups.
The works, usually large-scale, date from between the earliest
years of polyphonic notation (the mid-1100s) and the
end of 1600. Occasionally these boundaries are
overstepped, but not often.
We are not averse to the secular music of the times,
but our fondness for "large forms" has usually meant,
in practice, that most of our literature is sacred "cathedral"
music. We note that "off the beaten path" does
not
mean "obscure for its own sake": we present works that
(like their composers) deserve to be much better known
to concert audiences than they are in these times of
"marketing timidity" among many concert presenters.

Tax-deductible
contributions
from
supporting "angels"
are always welcome and most helpful.